‘Introducing a national diesel scrappage scheme could provide a short-cut to cleaning up the air in our cities,’ said the chair of the Environmental Audit Committee.
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The government should consider a scrappage scheme for diesel cars to get polluting vehicles off the streets of England’s cities, where they contribute to tens of thousands of premature deaths every year, according to an influential committee of MPs.

“Introducing a national diesel scrappage scheme could provide a short-cut to cleaning up the air in our cities,” said Huw Irranca-Davies, chair of the EAC. Ahead of George Osborne’s autumn statement next Wednesday, he said: “The Treasury must use VED to create long-term incentives for drivers to buy cleaner hybrid and electric cars that minimise both CO2 and harmful pollutants.”

The EAC welcomed the government proposal to create a national framework of Clean Air Zones, something it had called for on repeated occasions. This would give councils the power to ban or limit diesel cars from cities, but the MPs warned that different rules in different cities would be confusing. “It will be important to avoid sending out conflicting signals to drivers across the country,” said Irranca-Davies.

Making local councils responsible to tackling air pollution made sense as they were best placed to understand local problems, he said. But he warned that council budgets were under extreme pressure.

“We are concerned that central government is trying to shift responsibility for meeting air quality targets to local authorities at a time when they are facing severe funding cuts.” he said. “The government has a duty to ensure that local authorities have the financial means at their disposal to adequately implement air quality action plans.”